# Formatted Duration on Objects Doesn't Display Negative Numbers

**URL:** <https://community.palantir.com/t/formatted-duration-on-objects-doesnt-display-negative-numbers/7374>\
**Category:** Ask the Community\
**Tags:** object-explorer, ontology-management, insight\
**Created:** [October 14, 2026, 9:51am UTC](https://community.palantir.com/t/formatted-duration-on-objects-doesnt-display-negative-numbers/7374 "2026-10-14T09:51:53Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![green](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/palantir/user_avatar/community.palantir.com/green/32/2539_2.png) [@green](https://community.palantir.com/u/green)\
**Post date:** [October 14, 2026, 9:51am UTC](https://community.palantir.com/t/formatted-duration-on-objects-doesnt-display-negative-numbers/7374/1 "2026-10-14T09:51:53Z")

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Hello,

Does anyone know if it’s possible to show negative time durations in Insight/Object Explorer please, or is this a #bug ?

I have a property ‘Lead Time’ that is a duration, in seconds, set to be displayed as a human readable time:

 ![image](https://canada1.discourse-cdn.com/palantir/original/2X/c/cc58223b2d621def6c87624333f1d14ecf9cabf6.png)  
The issue is sometimes you have negative leadtimes (e.g. something is going to happen in the future, not the past), but the display does not show a negative time or other indicator, which results in the values in the column appearing unsorted to users.

The sorting is _correct_, the first item is the smallest as it’s actually 10 hours and 28 minutes into the future (-10h 28m), but this just looks like the sorting is broken to most users. Is there a way to change this please?

## Insight

 ![image](https://canada1.discourse-cdn.com/palantir/original/2X/a/aea9e53be9941cef52b59916ddcf72575476569a.png)

## Object Explorer

 ![image](https://canada1.discourse-cdn.com/palantir/original/2X/9/944e3df271cbf29560c3dadcb0c9c94fa19fe06f.png)

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![jpodell](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/54ee81/32.png) [@jpodell](https://community.palantir.com/u/jpodell)\
**Post date:** [October 14, 2026, 1:03pm UTC](https://community.palantir.com/t/formatted-duration-on-objects-doesnt-display-negative-numbers/7374/2 "2026-10-14T13:03:38Z")

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Hi Green,

The built-in duration formatter drops the minus sign.

You can try one of these workarounds for a quick fix:

1. **Pre-format a string property.** In your pipeline or transform, add a string property such as `"-1h 30m"` or `"1h 30m overdue"` and display that. Keep the numeric property for sorting and filtering.
2. **Store the sign separately.** Keep the duration as an absolute value and add a direction property (or a boolean). Show the two side by side.
3. **Use conditional formatting.** On the property, set up a rule like “value \< 0 → red”. The number still shows without a sign, but negative values stand out.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![green](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/palantir/user_avatar/community.palantir.com/green/32/2539_2.png) [@green](https://community.palantir.com/u/green)\
**Post date:** [October 15, 2026, 2:00pm UTC](https://community.palantir.com/t/formatted-duration-on-objects-doesnt-display-negative-numbers/7374/3 "2026-10-15T14:00:33Z")

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Hello,

Thanks for the reply. In terms of user friendliness the last option is probably the best, the first removes the ability to aggregate the durations, and the second one is more confusing for users when the want to sort and filter a table.

Hopefully the native ability to show the -ve sign will still be added to the formatting.